JV23

Thanks. With Labour Day sale prices, I got the 9090s all in for sub $175 CAD, so if they don’t work out, it’s not the end of the world.

Hi all. A while ago, I had posted about my son’s feet and their high volume making skate fitting a bit difficult. He ended in a size 2 jr 9080 which he loves and fits well. With Labour Day sales in play, I am able to pick up some 1/2 and full sizes bigger (eyeballing the size 3), where I have the choice between the 9080 and 9090. Am I right in thinking at Jr 3, the 9090 (same frame as the AS1 I believe) would be insanely stiff for an 11 year old? It’s a great deal financially but not so much if it impacts skating. He’s already skating one eyelet down in his size 2 9080’s and loving the knee bend. Figuring if I can get skates that fit now, I won’t be stressing later if these go and he can’t wear the newer model. Thanks for any wisdom…

Thanks @evilpepe, good to know for a bit later. As an update, I got one of my LHS owners to take a look - tons of knowledge about fitting across multiple generations of boots, but tough hours to get to. Based on his feedback, it looks like he was ready for a move to a size 2. I had taken him to a big box hockey store (only because we were driving by and it was really bugging me) and got measured there with the Bauer blue stick, but I didn't believe it. He got measured again using the old fashioned metal foot thingy, and it said essentially the same thing. I guess that goes to show the scanner is iffy. He had tried on a Supreme 3S EE in a size 2 and he said it felt good. I really didn't like the feel of the skate though - felt pretty flimsy given he'd be skating in it at minimum 5 days up to 7 days per week for multiple hours, and the tongue didn't seem to offer much in the way of lace bite protection or anything. Didn't get to try on the 3SPro due to lack of availability in his size. Probably a good thing. He tried on a Tacks 9070 and 9080 in 2 at the LHS's recommendation, which fit him really well. What I was told was that they were the old Tacks fit before the 93XX series came in and shallowed things up a bit. Being a bit of a sceptic, I had him try on a 9370 in 2D as well, and the instep bump out was back, compared to gone in the 9080. The 9080s were even better once baked and pressure fitted. Issue solved...for now! I may have to go on the hunt for other sizes (like a 3) until he gets into the fit system, since I don't think the problem's going away any time soon. With the 9080s on clearance, should be able to find at a good enough price to merit it/risk it.

I like the Ribcor, he was in the youth 70k because it was so versatile (the legs seemed very against tacks at the time). Different store put him in tacks for the 1s. Last weekend I tried the ribcor on him and it was lower volume. I didn’t think the Vapor made sense, to be honest, unless the EE cut was more width AND more depth. I think it was elsewhere on here that mentioned the Supreme EE fit like a Nexus D, so I was willing to try that (and as a nod to @Mojo122, the D as well. He tried on the neighbour’s Mission FZ5 2E rollers this AM to check depth (length way too much) and he was bulging out of those, though not as much. I figure to try the Supremes if I can find stock and then leave it. I’m not hearing a ton of “gasp, the horror, he’ll break his foot”, which was my primary concern. I’ve done a few finger tests and it seems like he’s all the way back in the skate. Is there any way to really check that, or is it worth a rebake to bang the heel back in the skate a bit if it is possible?

@Vet88. He’s going into Minor Peewee playing AA in a strong hockey center (big pool of players to draw from). Skating has always been a strength on his evals with his coaches and private coaches, but I take the point very well that he doesn’t know everything and good technique takes years with good specialized coaching to develop. He’s nearing the end of the 1’s (a couple of millimeters max on the footbed), and I always go half sizes to avoid boot slop. My comment on lacing methodology was really to avoid what I have been interpreting as lace bite over that instep, then one eyelet to lock the ankle, and loose the top two.. Once the COVID lockdown is over, I will try the one eyelet down thing. @BenBreeg not sure if there is a problem or not, to be honest. I imagine taking a shot off the instep would hurt more than if there was more depth, but it isn’t like I want to do an experiment! I’d love to keep him in CCM’s because I have extra runners, but safety comes before saving (sigh) if there really is a problem. thanks to all for comments so far. I tend to fall into overthink mode on this stuff (don’t get me started on what flex a 4’7” 80 lbs kid should be using…it hurts when I think about it)

I need to be really careful tying the skates or he complains (a lot) about pain at the top. If I go super loose then tighten at the three eyelets down, he’s fine. Also wondering is his foot safe like that? As another data point, he has access to a pair of size 2E last gen Missions…would they be Supreme-fit?

My son is currently in a Tacks 9380 size 1D. Length is good, though he could go to a 1.5 with growing room. Width doesn’t seem to be a problem either. Where he’s having an issue is that is instep is so high that it is bulging out past the eyelets, which is forcing a change. He measures as a Vapor EE on the Bauer scanner, but the LHSs near me don’t have any 1 or 1.5EEs in stock for me to try, and while phoning around, a couple of people said that if a Tacks was too shallow, the Vapors would be as well and I should go for Supremes. I don’t mind driving around to find boots to try on him, but wondering if any of the experts on the board have any views. I know the Supreme foot shape is different from the Vapor as well…so there are a lot of variables at play. thanks in advance.

Sorry…wide. Vs regular fit tacks.

Does anybody in the know have any insight into how much more volume the Wide fit (edited from EE)Ribcor 90ks will have compared to say a Tacks 9380D? Looking at sizes around 2 or 2.5. My son has LEGO feet - super thick wedge feet. He’s in the 9380’s and the sides cover the tongue edges (barely)…so he’s prone to some lace bite and I am eyeballing the D30 tongues to give his foot top a bit more protection. By fall I expect he’ll be in at least a 2, so there should be a bit more selection with the new lines. Thanks for any help

I feel like it’s the latter. Better edges.

I’m not sure it works on a continuum of better/worse. In my opinion, Blacksteel is better than V-Steel. It really sounds as though one of a couple of things may not be right in your setup. 1. When you got the blacksteel, was the profile the same as on your old blades? If no, adjust, unless you like how you feel on the stock step profile (10’? Not sure). Could be you have more blade on the ice, which is increasing bite at a constant hollow. 2. As per above, these blades bite, so if profile is the same, try going more shallow on a sharpen. If you’re normally 1/2 or 5/8, take it up an eighth or two, see if you feel more glide that way. You should see improvement. 3. Sharpening - I’m making an assumption that they are new so maybe the shop you bought them at sharpened them at a house cut different than what you’re used to? This is really 2(b) not 3, but eliminate those variables first. I’m only pushing experimentation because they are really good steel.

Have you tried reducing the hollow with them? I find that when on coated blades they do bite more than normal, so you can go shallower without a worry. For me, it was 5/8 to 3.4 and a temptation to go 7/8…

From what I can tell, if it is your first profile from fresh blades, centre is correct. If you are reprofiling a quad, you need to adjust for the fact that the template kicks the balance point 20mm, which is why they manually adjust. I am guessing here that is what you are asking because of the video you attached, which is only for a reprofile.

All of it comes down to how far you want to go. It’s a much bigger lift to go premium steel on once per week skating. I firmly believe that a peewee, at least at a higher rep level, can tell the difference - though articulating it is a challenge. They’ve been skating long enough (7-9 years), and let’s face it, the kids today can execute skills that we (the older generation) weren’t even aware of when we were their age. You definitely don’t need it to play well, but will the better edges allow you to execute skating skills with better confidence, probably. pros of premium steel added height - last longer, better angle on sharp turns without bottoming out edge retention - less dings, dents, lost edges from board battles and other stuff less sharpening required Cons cost, especially with growing feet Again, your mileage may vary. Maybe my experience was excessively coloured by the steel used in youth skates, but I didn’t need a micrometer to notice an improvement.

Even a non-coated Step, Bladetech or Tydan would be a much better play than the original CCM steel, if you're looking apples to apples.

OMG yes, or at least in my view. Same situation - I have a Minor Peewee player (U12 as we now call them ...I think) and he's in Tack 9380's now. Smaller feet, size 1 and just moving into the 1.5. He skated once in the black XS steel, and then switched over to Step and a set of Bladetech and refuses to use the CCM steel now. CCM steel is notoriously bad, and the Stainless XS is the worst of the bunch. World of difference with edge retention, ability to dig in when needed and in fact, with the DLC blades, I could go about 1/8 shallower with the hollow without him complaining, so better glide and speed on the straights. All steel was profiled to Quad 3XS, so that wasn't a mitigating factor. If you're conscious of cost, you could try to keep the CCM steel in play for practices and switch for game time, but the height difference may throw him/her off, but in an emergency, better than nothing.

No, there isn’t any width adjustment on it. Just front to back.

My son played for 2 years in one of those. Great lid, once the intial break in was done, he was never happier. Just went for the Re-Akt 200 last month because I found it on deep discount.

I did the debate for mine but couldn’t bring myself to drill more holes in my boots, so I stuck it out and love them. 288 holder, Quad 1. What Ellipse profile on what size did you end up with? Ellipse 1 made me feel like I was waterskiing.

This is more of an “I wonder how” than anything else, but in order to profile a Shift to be more similar to a Tuuk or CCM holder, what should a good shop do to compensate for the more forward tilted foot of a Shift? There’s got to be some sort of balance point manipulation to do this, right? Not just an arc change?

Hi, with the prospect of hockey in Ontario getting slimmer and slimmer through the summer, I went and got my son some Mission FZ-5 rollers to boot around on. He's got small feet - he's almost in a 1.5 CCM 9380 on ice, so I got him the size 2 Missions. They look a touch big but not horrifically so - ie his foot is 21.4 cm, the 2's are for feet at 21.8cm (5/32" away from the recommended size so not crazy). I've got the Marsblade O-1 one on mine so we can mess around on the road or a local parking lot, he is in a Hi-Lo. I took a look at Marsblades for him, but as a size 2, the side says the holder will be bigger than the boot but he'll still get benefit. I'm leaning towards just leaving him in the HiLo until size 3, mainly because they're a touch big already, adding something else over the toe is going to lead him to say "screw it". Has anyone had any experience with the O-1 small on a 2 boot? I did a search but was swimming in answers, so apologies if I missed.

I’m probably paraphrasing a bit of an earlier post and adding my own experiences here... for me it’s all about size and location. One nick near the back and meh, stone it before you sharpen and let it ride if the rest of the blade is sharp. An inch long lost edge right in the middle or in the back of the front third of the blade (right about the third of the blade mark from the front), and I make sure it’s gone. A small one in that range is a bit more judgment but I’d be inclined to stone it and then let it go too. Probably got through at least half a game with it there.

All right, I've now had two more skates, 1 more fully on ellipse, where I was paying attention to things like acceleration and agility (we're talking relative terms here...while not a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalo, my lightweight days are behind me), and one where I started with ellipse and did a blade change back to Quad 1. And the winner is the Quad 1. More jump, more pop, more explosive starts, sharper turns, better pivots, better feeling of front of skate. It's funny, I didn't really notice anything bad on the ellipse, but the minute I put the Quad back on, the guys I was with were all wondering what happened... So, I'm going to agree with @pgeorgan, there's something less aggressive at the front that is slowing the ellipse down. PS - I know I'm dating myself with the LOWB reference...ah, childhood memories of that and classic animated flashing sky Spiderman.

I could see shallowing up the hollow coming from a single 11 ’, but from quad to ellipse shouldn’t be that big a deal... I stayed at my 11/16” roh, didn’t notice a difference...maybe a bit more bite, but at this point could be my imagination or the difference between the manual sharpen that came on the blades and my usual Sparx run.

I got a nice present in the mail today...my new blades profiled with Ellipse 1. I’m a 288 steel in a Shift holder, and thanks @KKSkate for doing great work on the profile. Coming from a Quad 1. Initial feedback (one skate, assorted edge work drills and then breakouts and zone entries) is that I feel a bit less on my tiptoes with this profile vs the quad, despite the same 20mm back Center, but I still feel like I can access the acceleration “zone” at the front of the blade. Stability was good, agility was maybe a touch less, but overcomeable with a bit more effort. Forwards and Backwards transitions and crossovers felt as good, but less feeling like I am as uncomfortably on my toes. no skating until Wednesday next week so won’t be able to really dial in my opinion until then. Nothing screams “give me my quad back” yet...